Abstract
It is feared that Hg should be transfered into sucklings from milk, if their dams take the foods contaminated with PMA. To make clear this point, Hg-203 labelled PMA was administered orally to six lactating guinea pigs for single dose experiment, and to five lactating guinea pigs for repeated dose (five times) experiment. The excretion of Hg into feces and urine, the transfer of Hg into milk and the residue of Hg in some organs and blood, and the transfer into sucklings from dam's milk were studied.
Most of Hg in PMA administered orally was excreted into feces (59.7±2.8% of dose-single dose, 61.7±4.3%-repeated total dose), and urine (13.2±1.7%-single dose, 16.4±3.4%-repeated total dose). On the contrary, the transfer of Hg into milk was small in amount (0.40±0.09%-single dose, 0.40±0.27%-repeated total dose), but continued for experimental term.
The residue of Hg in kidney was larger in amount and higher in concentration than in liver and other organs (kidney-8.5-14.8%, 9.4-28.1 ppm, liver-2.4-2.8%, 0.24-1.5 ppm). However, the small amount of Hg was detected in brain.
The transfer of Hg into the sucklings from milk was 4.85±1.96%-single dose experiment, 5.07±2.78%-repeated dose experiment (100% means the whole amount of Hg in milk sucked by each suckling).
The period in which half amount of orally administered Hg was excreted, was about 2-3 days.
